Christina+Ordonez

Christina Ordonez

=Reading in the E-world: The use of digital texts to increase student learning, motivation, and disposition = As districts begin to experience financial strain, many schools are investigating the use of an on-line curriculum. This method of fiscal responsibility is chosen because it removes the cost of textbooks and puts the ownership of the curricula back into the teachers’ and school districts’ hands verses the publishing companies’ hands. However, when making the decision to move to an on-line curriculum, districts rarely look at the type of text that is used, how students interact with that text, and how that affects student learning, as shown through reading comprehension, connection, and retention, as well as student motivation and disposition. Traditional text, for the purposes of this study, is the common form of printed text. Digitized text, for the purposes of this study, is traditional text available in an electronic format, but with no extra content than a traditional text has available. Digital text, for the purposes of this study, is digitized text that has been enhanced – it has links to other information, embedded video and audio clips, a word-by-word dictionary and encyclopedia, and the ability to add shared notes and hypermedia as the student reads. There has not been much research into the effects of digital text on student learning compared to traditional or digitized texts; however, this must be remedied before significant resources, including time and money, are spent creating digital curriculum or spent digitizing curriculum. While such a transitional time in educational pedagogy exists, the change that is made must be an informed change to increase student learning, not just the bottom line.
 * INTRODUCTION**

Please take a look at my PowerPoint for further information about my proposed study.